Fifteen years after its release on Marco Polo, this remains the only recording of Pizzetti’s quartets, by a Hungarian ensemble who apparently disbanded shortly afterwards. They don’t sound happy playing together: unreliable tuning speaks louder than hindsight. Maybe the First Quartet of 1906 would shake off a sleepy, blatantly Dvorákian air at quicker tempi; probably not. From more than a quarter of a century later, the Second contrives to be still more conservative. The first movement’s development section slides around on a slick of chromatic oil – Pizzetti doesn’t sound convinced, never mind the players – and even the determined note-writer calls the second movement turgid.

If you wanted to rebut Massimo Freccia’s charge that the music of Pizzetti is ‘basically boring’, I don’t think you’d start here. The Piano Trio and Second Violin Sonata present if not a more personal voice, then a determined melodist offering chamber opera for players to enjoy without the high-flown plainsong origins or dense counterpoint of the orchestral works. Pizzetti’s Requiem attracts good choirs; his chamber music evidently needs impassioned advocacy.